Flip of a Coin
by Longing.For.The.Stars
Summary: Jinx was bad luck. Destruction was her birthright, death was her legacy. She was a monster, after all. No matter what these... 'half-bloods' had to say about that.
1. Prologue

The breath left Jinx's lungs as she was slammed into the ground, harder than a single stolen necklace should have warranted. Her pink eyes glittered with tears she would not let fall. It was not the pain that made them appear. It was not even the fact that she had just probably lost her ticket to a meal today.

This was what she was reduced to. Petty theft to get by.

Jinx gritted her teeth as she pulled herself to her feet, balling her fists up to face the Teen Titans. Their moronic leader, Robin, stood at the front of their little posse, hands on his hips, looking oh-so smug. "Give up, Jinx?" he asked with a hint of a smirk on his lips, as if he had already won. As if she did not have pink fire racing through her veins and fight beating in her heart.

"Not a chance, traffic lights," Jinx shot back, hiding her tired state behind snark. From the way Beastboy grinned and elbowed Cyborg, she must have succeeded. "Bring it." Her gray hands lit up with pink magic.

"Titans, go!"

Five against one was not a fair fight, even to a witch of Jinx's caliber. Even if the teens might have been holding back somewhat, do to respect for a former friend.

For a group of teens, they showed no mercy. Jinx was hit by a rhino at full speed, the horn piercing through her dress as if the hardy material was nothing but plain cotton. Sonic blasts tossed her like a ragdoll and starbolts burned her skin.

Whatever. She knew that children were cruel, cruel creatures.

Jinx spun, sending a wave of magic towards the ground, cracking the road and forcing her former friends to retreat. She herself ran down the street, searching for an escape. Two feet slammed squarely into her back, sending her forward, headfirst. Tucking herself into a ball, Jinx allowed the momentum to carry her for a second, before stretching her arms and legs out into a series of acrobatic flips.

"I'd say that was impressive, but it really wasn't," Robin taunted from a ledge. He sprung from the sill in demonstration, showing off his quick moves while cutting off her escape. Jinx backed away.

Remembering she had the rest of the team, Jinx spun around, seeing Beastboy and Cyborg on either side of the road. Starfire was in the air between them, emerald eyes glowing with power. Sensing dark energy in the air, Jinx risked a glance to the right, spotting Raven floating above a shop. She was surrounded.

"Stand down, Jinx," Robin ordered. "We have to talk about your... recent activities."

"Oh, this?" Jinx said challengingly. She held out her hand, the diamond necklace glittering on it. "Want it? You can have it!" She fisted her hand, pulling it back behind her ear. When she tossed it forward, it was glowing pink with her hex magic, ricocheting towards Batman's sidekick at dangerous speeds. Boy Wonder distracted by the cursed object, Jinx charged in his direction, aiming for the opening his divided attention provided.

She did not make it far before she was hit by a car covered in black energy. Jinx went tumbling through the air, hitting the pavement with a force that would have been fatal to baseline humans. She rolled for at least twenty more meters down the road, cuts and bruises accumulating over her skin. Jinx would be surprised if there was a single unmarked inch of skin left on her after this.

Jinx tried to push herself off the ground, but her arms trembled and gave out under her. Jinx laid prone on the ground, not sure if she had the strength to pull herself up again, not sure if it was _worth it_ to put herself back together.

What did she have left? She turned her back on H.I.V.E. The other villains would not take her back after her time as a hero. The heroes themselves saw her as a joke.

Who was she joking?

Like her mother told her, she would never amount to anything. She was a freak of nature, an abomination that should have been destroyed.

Jinx was death, destruction, and chaos. She would not get a home, because she did not _deserve_ one.

A monster deserves nothing but a monster's death.

With new resolve, Jinx slowly lifted her head up, eyes fixed unwaveringly on the five already-cheering teens that took her down. Well, four cheering teens. The cyborg and the little green changeling were exchanging gleeful fistbumps. Batman's sidekick and his alien girlfriend were standing a little too close to each other. The demonling, though, she was looking at Jinx.

Determined pink eyes met pure onyx.

First came understanding, then horror.

"Jinx, stop!" The urgency in the purple-haired teen's voice cut the celebrations short.

"Raven?" Robin asked.

"Get everyone out of here!" Raven said frantically.

"Titans, go!" the leader ordered as the team scattered to remove innocent civilians. "Raven, what's happening?"

"Jinx, you have to stop, you have to- Run!" the demonling screamed out, cutting off her previous words in a shout of warning. Black shields raised in preparation, but for once, they were no match for Jinx, bending and breaking under her power.

Jinx combusted in a explosion of magenta. Fuschia shockwaves blasted throughout the entire block, shattering windows, tearing up pavement, and frying electronics. Though it was not apparent at that time, the witch's last act had further-reaching effects. Even at distances over a mile away, reports would come in of cracked windshields and fallen trees. An electrical outage covered almost the entirety of Jump City.

At ground zero, however, a cloaked sorcerer floated down to stand in front of a crater. She picked up a black platform boot, all that remained of a once-powerful villain, and looked up, wondering if there was something - anything - that they could have done.

* * *

Congratulations, you have reached the end of what I got so far! Settle down for a long wait - I have other stories that I like more than this one. Well, one other story that I like more. Meh.

This is from Jinx's point of view. She can be an unreliable narrator at times. Maybe the Titans were actually 'cruel' and lured her away from the dark side, only to betray her. Or maybe it was because she ran away because of a misunderstanding, and they were glad to finally pin their teammate down. You choose, because I don't care.

That aside, have you guys _seen_ the Titans fight? _Dude_ , those attacks would probably kill me! Ouch, control your powers a bit on poor, poor Jinx!


	2. Chapter 1

...Okay, this chapter probably would have been a better prologue than the one I used. It's less controversial, for one. Really, though - have you watched Teen Titans? Kids, both heroes and villains alike, are thrown into concrete and metal with enough force to _kill_ them. Cracks appear on F-ing concrete and metal _dents_.

* * *

There was a someone outside their window. Now, usually that would not be a problem.

Usually, that is.

Sure, lots of people probably have streets right outside their houses, with people walking back and forth. The thing was, well… their apartment was on the second floor. Plus, the fire escape was outside their mom's room. There really should not be a person out in front of the window.

"Travis, wake up!" Connor said, turning around on their shared bed to shake his older brother. He peered down at his big brother's sleeping face. "Trav, there's someone outside!"

The older Stoll sibling was still sleeping, despite the wailing of police sirens somewhere around the block. "Mmm, tell'm t' go 'way," Travis muttered, turning away and covering his head with their blanket. After a moment, Connor realized that his brother had gone back to sleep. As terrific of a brother Travis Stoll could be in his waking moments, he was a downright terrible brother at night.

"Trav!" Connor said, stomping his foot on the mattress and making the whole bed frame creak.

No response from his brother.

Connor peeked at the window, but only heard muffled scrapes. He crawled to the edge of bed and looked down at the floor. Travis had told him that monsters did not really hide under beds, that they just walked around like normal people, but Connor did not know if he should believe him. Travis always played tricks. Plus, the place under the bed was a really good hiding spot.

Maybe this was a bad idea. It was just the wind, right? Or a cat?

As if to prove him wrong, a small, stealthy figure hauled itself onto their windowsill. It paused there for a moment, then turned and launched itself off to the right.

Connor leapted far from the bed - he landed almost four feet away! Quick, like how Travis always taught him to be, Connor glanced under the bed. There were no monsters.

Looking around the room one last time, Connor crept towards the window, stepping around that one board that always creaked. Unable to see anything but a police car down the street, the younger Stoll brother opened the window, cringing at the loud sound, and leaned out. He looked to the right, at the fire escape platform in front of his mother's window.

Empty.

His senses were tingling, though. Whoever - whatever - it was, was still there. And it was watching him.

Something alerted him to movement above, a sixth sense he shared with his brother, and the seven-year-old Stoll's head snapped up. Cast in shadow, a small, child-like figure was perched on the railing of the fire escape, a little above the fourth floor.

As dark as it was outside, Connor could not make out the figure's face. He did not know who it could be. What he did know was that whoever it was should not be up there. From the way other's head was turned downwards, Conner guessed that the person was looking at him.

"You're gonna fall," Connor warned.

The other's head tilted consideringly. Just when Connor thought that he or she would not answer, the other spoke. "Am not. 'M not gonna defeated by a ladder," the other spoke fiercely, though careful to keep a low volume. As he had thought, it was a kid, but Conner could not tell from the voice alone if he was looking at a boy or a girl.

"What's your name?" Conner asked curiously, leaning even further out the window.

The other kid snorted. "Wouldn't 'cha like to know?" A little foot wriggled tauntingly at Conner.

Connor frowned at the kid, not liking the tone. He grabbed onto the side of the of the window and looked at the distance between him and the fire escape. It was far, further than he had ever tried jumping before.

"You're gonna fall," the figure sang mockingly, repeating his earlier warning. There was a pause as Connor reconsidered the fire escape and the person up there reconsidered Connor. "No, really. You're gonna fall. You're not like me."

"Are too," Connor disagreed with a smirk.

And with that, he pushed off the wall and leapt with all his might.

It seemed like time was slowing down, to Connor. The air was pulling his giant T-shirt back, but he was still traveling forward. His hands reached out to grab onto the fire escape. It was growing closer, and closer… Then, he started going down.

He was not going to make it.

There was a deafening bang from somewhere above him, and the air was knocked out of Connor's lungs as he was hit by someone smaller than him. A moment later, Connor saw stars as his head and what felt like half his body hit cold metal.

A small, pale hand covered his mouth. "Shhh!" the kid hissed. Connor smothered the urge to wail and they waited.

"Who dun it now? Who gone and dun it now?" a woman yelled out with a thick accent.

"Shut up, Agta! Bet'cha dey yo' brats!" someone, this time a man, hollered back at her. Something broke somewhere to the left and below them. In Connor's imagination, it was a ceramic plate or mug of some sort

"My kids? You blamin' my kids?" the woman responded hotly. "Y'know what I thinkin'? I thinkin' yo' kids been-"

"Shaddup!" A third voice joined the argument. "Y'all shaddup 'less you wanna call the cop up 'gain?"

There were a few grumbles, but the voices subsided. The hand covering his mouth was removed and Connor turned his head to see who it was.

It was a girl. It was too dark to see the color of her eyes, but even in the dark night, her skin was so pale that she almost glowed. Her clothes were ripped and ragged and she was scrappy, a true child of the streets. He then looked up.

Somehow, the girl had caused the railing to break. It was hanging off of the stairs between the third and fourth platforms. The girl had held onto the railing, catching him while holding onto it. She had an arm looped around one of the bars, leaning casually against it as if it was just a ladder.

"Told you you'd fall."

"I didn't," Connor retorted. She flinched at the loud noise, so Connor tried again. "I didn't fall," he argued in a whisper.

"You missed," she pointed out, turning and climbing up. The railing swayed when she got off it.

"I missed, but I didn't fall," Connor insisted, following her up onto the platform of the fire escape. The metal railing creaked as he left it, clanging and hitting something above. He peered inside the window and was glad to see that his mom was still in bed, back facing the window. Loud noises happened a lot at night, so they were all used to it.

He turned back to the girl. "My name's Connor. What's yours?" He looked around, but she was not there anymore.

"Why should I tell you? You're not supposed to tell strangers your name, idiot." Connor looked up. She scowled back down at him. Connor ran up the stairs to where she was, just in time to see her stuff some jewelry inside a little black bag. With wide eyes, Conner looked back down at the police cars, then back at the bag. She glared and hid it behind herself. "Well?" she demanded. "Going to tell the police? They're not going to catch me."

"Breaking the rules is fun," Conner said, shrugging. "Like, we're not supposed to be up here, and I'm not supposed to jump out of the window, and you're not supposed to break the fire escape. We gotta keep them in case the police or the monsters come and we gotta run out of the house," Connor told her solemnly, parroting the words Travis told him.

The girl turned to stare at him. The tips of her mouth twisted, and Conner wondered if he was supposed to be afraid. It was the middle of the night, they were really high, and no one knew where he was. Plus, the strange girl could break fire escapes.

Not blinking, the girl slowly smiled at him. "You know, I change my mind. You're not like me, but you're exactly like the type of people I hang out with. I think we're going to be great friends." With the police lights hitting them, her eyes seemed somewhere between red, pink, or purple. "My name is Jinx."

* * *

Not planning to stop writing, but if I don't put out another chapter again, hurricane Flo' got me.


	3. Chapter 2

So. I should really be working on OISAMOW, but a lot of people on Discord were all about Percy Jackson and, as always, I got swept up in the hype. So... YOLO!

Chapter edited by Storm, a Discord dude.

* * *

As much as Connor would like to claim that Jinx's influence made them better people, that would be a lie; lying was apparently wrong, but Connor had never been a stickler for rules and he wasn't planning to change that now.

Laws just happened to be another particular sect of rules he didn't follow. In this case, it was laws regarding stealing.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Travis huffed frantically, sending a exhilarated grin at Connor as they ran through the dingy alley. Hearing another pair of feet pounding after them, Connor pushed himself to go faster. His throat was going dry and he was starting to pant with the effort. Still, his older brother reached the chain link fence before he did, squeezing through the tiny hole at the bottom.

"Come back here, you thieves!" the angry shopkeeper shouted, swinging a baseball bat at them like he was imagining hitting a homerun with their heads instead of the ball. Yeah, not likely. Connor liked his face just the way it was, thank you very much.

Travis pulled the edges back, widening the hole for Connor to dive through. They both turned in unison to smirk at the shopkeeper, stuck on the other side of the fence. The shopkeeper looked up at the top of the fence as if considering whether or not to clamber over, but the bits of barbed wire that were haphazardly pulled over the top were enough of a deterrent to stop him. Still wanting the last word, the furious man cracked his baseball bat against the fence several times, making a racket. Startled, the two young Stoll brothers fell on their behinds.

"Come back to the shop! I _dare_ you to. I'll beat your heads in, I will!" the man raged. He grabbed the fence, shaking it. "Ya hear me?"

Connor stared at the man, stunned. He turned his wide eyes to his older brother. "It was just some candy!"

Travis shushed him. "He's not gonna beat our heads in," Travis said, with all of his nine-year-old's confidence. "If he did that, he'd go to jail! Plus, he can't catch us anyway!"

Hearing this, the shopkeeper started yelling again, with lots of swearing included this time. The two brothers yelped and ran out of the alley, away from the man. They didn't stop until they were roughly six blocks away, taking a winding path through back alleys and over low walls to make sure they weren't followed.

Travis kept looking around at the side alleys and rooftops to make sure Jinx didn't see them running from the shopkeeper. If she knew that the guy had caught them stealing, she'd complain about it for _weeks_. She always thought they were better than they actually were, and when they failed to reach her expectations, Jinx will make them practice over and over, until it was almost automatic. When Travis couldn't unlock a security vault, Jinx had gotten one to practice on. By the time they finished working on it, Connor was had dreams of picking locks. _Dreams_. That was how hard she made them practice.

A couple of other street kids looked up in interest as the two raced by, but they weren't bothered. The older kids apparently thought that two scrawny younger kids probably didn't have much to offer. Either that or it was because they had been threatened by Jinx.

Reaching their destination, the two boys shoved a trash can under an escape ladder. Travis went first, clambering onto the trashcan while Connor held it steady. The elder brother jumped up to catch the first rung of the escape ladder. Connor climbed up on the trash can himself, careful to keep his balance. He held Travis's legs and gave him a boost to help him pull himself up on the ladder.

There was quiet shuffling, then a ratty rope dangled down. Connor climbed up, then pulled the rope up and wrapped it neatly around a pole, not bothering to untie it. Travis peered down at him and Connor nodded, the two of them climbing up to the roof.

As always, Jinx had arrived first. She was sitting cross legged in the shadow of the small shed, picking through a small pile of loot. Connor eyed it appreciatively as he and Travis pulled candy and granola bars out of the multiple hidden pockets that Jinx had sewed onto their jackets. Their combined pile was bigger than Jinx's, but just barely.

Jinx saw this too and gave them a look that said clearly 'is that all?' before combining their piles, picking out everyone's favorites and redistributing them. Her pile was the biggest of them all, but Connor kind of expected that. It had to be hard to live on your own. He and Travis lived with their mom, but they _still_ didn't have a lot to eat. Not having a mom would be a lot harder, though.

Jinx was a really weird, even for a girl. She always wore long sleeves, even on the hottest days. She was pale because she didn't like the sun and she didn't have any other friends. She wasn't giggly or girly like the girls in school, and that was a good thing. If Jinx made them dress up or play pretend, Connor would've ran away and never looked back.

She was tougher than the girls at school too. When they were younger, Jinx had taught Connor and Travis how to steal and pick locks, how to act cute and have adults not suspect them. Now that they were all older, Jinx taught them how to _win_. Whenever they ran into trouble on the streets, she would come and back them up. When she was by their side, they never lost. No one bullied them at school anymore, and Connor knew it was because of Jinx. She was their good luck charm.

"Hey, that's mine!" Connor yelled when Jinx grabbed his mini marshmallow pack. "You don't even _like_ them!"

"Come get them, then," Jinx said, standing up. It was said by rote; a simple challenge that happened every day they met up, without fail.

Connor lunged forward, then hopped to jump over her leg-sweep. It was one of her favorite moves, and she always did it at least once a fight. He tried to punch her, but she flipped away. Connor ran forward, then dodged back when she started to kick and punch. None of them hit him.

"You didn't get _worse_ , at least," Jinx said.

Connor grinned. From her, that was a pretty good compliment. "Thanks, I—" Mid-sentence, he leapt for her, one fist swinging in a feint attack. He anticipated where she would move to avoid it, reaching out with his other hand to grab his marshmallows.

A hand grabbed his forearm, and his world _spun_.

The next thing Connor knew, he was staring at the cloudy sky and his head and back hurt _a lot_. "Ow," Connor whined. His head had landed perfectly on Travis's pile of candy, not on the concrete, but Travis's face looked very annoyed. Whoops.

"So, Travis," Jinx said. "What did he do wrong?"

"Er… he got distracted?" Travis said hesitantly.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Jinx snapped. "You have to act confident. If you sound like you're certain, then people will be more likely to believe you."

Travis straightened up like a puppet on a string. "When you complimented him, he got distracted and overconfident," Travis declared.

Jinx crossed her arms. "Better. In a fight, an opponent might use insults or flattery to shake your confidence or distract you. If you fall for it, you could lose."

Connor rolled over and crawled to his brother. "What's flattery?" he whispered.

Travis shrugged. "I think it means being nice." He eyed Jinx. "It means being nice," he said firmly, a smirk spreading across his face.

"Your turn," Jinx said sweetly.

"Uh-oh," Connor said. He gathered all his candy and moved them to the side. If Travis had to fall, he could fall on his own candy. As he watched, Travis jumped from one foot to the other like a karate guy from a low-budget movie.

Giving him an unimpressed look, Jinx marched up to the older Stoll brother and proceeded to slug him. The entire fight was over in less than ten seconds.

Once Travis hit the dust, Jinx beckoned Connor up. "Again."

"But that's not fair. I just went!" Connor protested. He gave Travis a nasty look for losing so quickly.

"Don't care. Life isn't fair."

What followed was one of their most grueling training sessions yet. Connor knew his limits. By tomorrow, both he and Travis would be covered in bruises. They would have to raid their mom's make-up stash again. Jinx didn't let up. Sometimes, their breaks lasted less than a minute. Once she got bored of her Stoll punching bags, Jinx had them practice their flips and kicks, some Connor was sure she made up. There was no way normal people did this.

"You're going to be glad you know how to do this," Jinx scolded them as she paused the fight so she could tie up her hair again. The pink ribbons she used to tie her black hair into two ponytails had gone loose for the third time. Connor wasn't sure why she didn't just use hair ties like all the other girls. Ribbons didn't seem to work half as well.

"Yeah, but right now I'm going to faint," Travis said.

Jinx looked at Travis with a frown. She opened her mouth to say something, then stopped. "Five minutes." She turned and walked to the edge of the building, sitting down and looking out across the city.

Connor watched her sitting alone there. "Do you think Jinx is lonely?" he asked, opening a bag of M&M's.

Travis stopped pouring salted peanuts into his mouth to look at their friend. "No," he said. "We asked her to come home with us, remember? She said no. That means she's not lonely. If she was lonely, she'd come, right?"

"Are you sure?" Connor said.

Travis thought. "Yeah," he said with a nod. The two boys shared their loot quietly.

"Can I have some more of your peanuts?" Connor asked. "I want to give them to Peter. I think it's his birthday next week."

Connor had talked to Travis about Peter often since the new kid's arrival. As a new student, Peter was even more friendless than Jinx. The fact that he walked funny and was caught trying to eat a spoon made him even more of a target for bullies. Connor was one of the only ones that talked to Peter every day. At the very least, he made sure to always say hello and goodbye. They weren't friends, but Connor knew how it felt to be alone. At least he had Travis and Jinx.

"The new weirdo kid in your class?" Travis grumbled, but he gave Connor one of the more smashed packets.

"Thanks," Connor said.

The two looked up as a shadow fell over them. The Stolls groaned, knowing that their break was over.

"Get up. I'm going to teach you pickpocketing," Jinx said. She sniffed. "You obviously need the lessons, if you were almost caught by a cashier."

Third grade was the bane of little Connor Stoll's existence. Dyslexia and ADHD made it hard to concentrate, even when he really wanted to. Sometimes, there were really interesting things for him to learn, like science. Menos and Coke... definitely a fun experiment that he was going to go keep in mind. Y'know, just in case? But, yeah, school was the bane of his existence. Plus, his older brother wasn't in his class and Jinx rarely snuck into the playground. Simply put, school was hard and boring.

Checking to make sure Sasha and her friends weren't in the room, Connor walked in and hung his jacket on hook #17. He pulled out his notebook and pencil, sliding it across the tables. It hit Peter's elbow, and the other boy looked up.

"Hi, Peter," Connor said. He pretended he wasn't looking at Peter's arm. It was big. Peter was as big as a sixth grader and about as strong, too, but he never stood up for himself. Not even when David or some of the other kids picked on him.

Peter sniffed, then looked at Connor with wide eyes. "A-are you o-okay?" he stuttered.

"Yeah," Connor said, frowning. He picked up his folder and walked away, choosing to sit on the other side of the room from Peter. Peter always did that on days after Travis and Connor went to the rooftop or spent too long roaming the streets. Maybe it was the trash there, or maybe it was the smell of beer from the bar on the first floor of the building. Peter would hover near Connor and sniff the air. It made him uncomfortable, but Connor didn't want to be rude and bring it up. Instead, he avoided Peter on days he was acting like a weirdo.

He felt bad for doing it, he really did, but Connor knew that it was for the best. If Peter kept acting like that, Connor would be tempted to either prank or steal from the other third-grader. Jinx had taught him a lot about how some people were weird or different but couldn't help it; if Connor started picking on Peter, he'd feel guilty about it for days. Instead, Connor opened his notebook and tried to study for the spelling test they were going to have, even though he knew it was useless.

He jumped as someone flicked his ear, turning around to see Sasha and her friends. Connor glared and covered his ear. "Why'd you do that?"

"Ooooh, does it bother you?" Sasha crooned. She grinned a white-toothed smile at Connor's response and reached out to flick his ear again.

"I'm not afraid to punch a girl," Connor said, eyeing the teacher and wondering why she wasn't intervening. In fact, the only person who was looking their way was Peter, who was white as a sheet and trembling.

"You'd hit a defenseless little girl?" Sasha said, pouting and making her eyes big.

"You're a meanie!" one of Sasha's friend said to Connor.

"Connor said he'd hit a girl!" the other one announced to the rest of the class.

"It's not like that!" Connor protested. He'd hit _Sasha_ , not the other girls. He had seen Sasha flip a _fifth grader_ once. She was almost a Jinx-level threat.

Two loud claps made them look to the front of the room. "Settle down, class," Mrs. Rother said. "Connor, no hitting classmates. You have three minutes before the quiz starts. I hope you studied. If not, make the most of this time." She looked at Connor as if she suspected he was one of the ones who didn't study. She was right, of course.

Sasha's friends ran to their table. Looks like _they_ didn't study. "You know what? I'm _hungry_ ," Sasha said.

"Sorry, but I didn't pack my lunch today," Connor lied, hand going to his pocket. "Even if I did, I'm not sharing. Go ask David or someone." He opened his folder and pretended to start reading.

"Don't worry, I know what you can—" Sasha stopped, then sniffed. She turned towards Connor and sniffed again, a look of confusion on her face. "You smell different," she said.

"What are you doing, Sash? Are you becoming _Peter_ now?" said another classmate, sticking her nose in the air.

Sasha didn't answer, just standing there and staring at Connor instead, her nose wrinkled. Connor shifted uneasily and looked at the teacher, who decided to start the class. Connor let out a sigh of relief when Sasha went and sat down. Discreetly, he lowered his head to his sleeve and tried to smell it. It didn't smell much like anything. Deciding that Sasha was crazy, Connor tried to write a quick cheat-sheet on his eraser. It wasn't exactly working, considering the fact that he was dyslexic.

Connor looked to the side as he heard a grinding sound. Peter had completely ignored the fact that Connor specifically chose to sit far away from him. The bigger student had planted himself on the seat next to Conner and was scooting his chair over. "I have to talk to you after class. It's important," he said.

"Time's up. Put away your notes, and I better not hear any talking," Mrs. Rother said, passing out the quizzes.

"No thanks," Connor whispered as he closed his folder and pushed it to the corner of the table, side-eyeing Peter. With the amount of people sniffing him, all he wanted to do was run home and take a shower.

"No, you _have to_ listen to me," Peter insisted much too loudly.

"See me after class, Mr. Springfield," the teacher said tartly.

.~*~.

As the class trooped down to the cafeteria, Connor veered off to catch Travis as his class returned from gym. "Code: Stray Dog," he muttered. It was code for 'creeper trying to follow me'.

"Plan: Breakaway," Travis said as he brushed past. It was pretty much a 'wait and run' plan.

As soon as school ended, the teacher took Peter aside. Connor immediately ran for the door, hopping over David's outstretched leg and avoiding Sasha's hands when she tried to grab him. He yelped as one of her sharp nails snagged him, leaving an angry, red line on his arm. He shot her a dirty look before melting into the crowds to meet Travis at the back exit. They pushed out the door and into the sunlight.

"Who's following you? David?" Travis asked, frown on his face as they started jogging away. "If you want, we can tag-team him. He might be big, but there's no way he can stand up to the might of the Stoll brothers!"

Connor grinned. Nothing could stand up to their double threat. Except for Jinx, of course. Nothing could beat Jinx. Even some of the _grownups_ were scared of Jinx. "As cool as that'd be, it's actually Peter."

"The sniffer?" Travis asked. "Why are we running? I mean, he can't run at all, so what's the rush?"

"IDK. You're the one who started running." They slowed down. "He was sniffing me again. Do I smell funny? 'Cause he wasn't the only one."

Travis sniffed, then shrugged with a worried look. "You smell normal to me. Do you think I'm smelly and that's why I can't smell it either?"

"I don't smell anything. Do you think your classmates smelled it?"

The two walked a couple steps in contemplative silence.

Travis nudged Connor and nodded to a businessman who was walking in the same direction they were. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Connor smirked. Yes, he definitely was. He brushed past the business man, going down a side alley. Travis was just seconds behind him. Connor held up a leather wallet triumphantly. The cards were useless, but they picked out almost thirty dollars in bills and spare change. Connor found a couple of teenagers camping out by some dumpsters and tossed the wallet at them. "If you find a way to scam the system, have fun," he said.

Not to be outdone, Travis led them into several shops and they discreetly stuffed candy into their jackets when the workers weren't looking. While a cashier was busy trying to calm a hysterical daughter, Travis helped himself to the contents of the cash register, raising their total up to almost seventy dollars.

The two brothers shared a high five as they strolled down the sidewalk, feeling like kings. They slipped chocolate bars into the backpacks of kindergarteners and lollipops to toddlers, highly lords stooping down to assist peasants. Meanwhile, those older than them received nothing but trash. The smoker they found by the bar had cigarette stubs dropped into the hood of his hoodies. They ran into some school bullies walking home from school, and Connor snuck rocks and handfuls of dirt into the guys' backpacks while Travis put bugs into some of the girls'. Connor felt like Robin Hood, giving candy to babies and making sure all the bad guys got bad things. He didn't actually know who Robin Hood was, but he thought it was something like that.

They collected the trash and half-eaten salad bowls that a pair of teenage girls left behind and followed them into some store filled with too much pink. At the right time, they stuffed the litter into the respective girls' purses, not bothering to close the lids and letting the oily foods spill freely out.

"Run!" Travis yelled when the girls spun around to see them.

Twin screeches followed them out of the store and into the sidewalk. The Stoll brothers shared a high-five and sprinted down the street, baffled pedestrians stepping aside for the wild-haired boys to run past.

"Was that a little mean?" Connor asked. He had seen the price tags on purses when they went with their mom to go shopping. Their mom would stare longingly at the bags, then shake her head and walk away. Travis wanted to buy one for his mom, but there was no way they could afford them. Some of them could cost hundreds of dollars.

Travis shook his head. "They hurt the environment. They deserve it! Plus, the environment cost more to clean up, like, millions or something! All _they_ have to do is wipe it off with napkins."

Connor thought about it, then nodded. It made sense. Jinx had taught them a lot about fair play, and if the girls wanted to litter, then they deserved to have the litter in the bags.

Travis held up a stone. "New target, here I come!" He walked over to a guy with a head of curly brown hair.

Connor's eyes widened as he saw the familiar limp and the beat-up backpack. He ran after his older brother. Connor grabbed Travis as soon as he was in reach, pulling him behind the tree. "Dude, that's Peter!"

Travis blinked. "Peter Springfield, your weird, sniffing classmate?" He peered out from behind the tree. "You weren't kidding."

Connor looked through the trees to see Peter turning in a slow circle, his nose in the air. Even from where they were, the Stoll brothers could hear him sniffing. "Of course not. As if I'd lie to my own brother!" Connor said, clutching his chest at where he thought the heart was. It was either on the right side of his body, or the left, but not the middle. He frowned, switching his grip from the right side of his chest to the left, then back again.

"No, really. That's not normal," Travis said. "What the heck? Look."

Peter was slowly turning to face their direction, shuffling forward, sniffing the entire way.

The brothers shared an alarmed look.

"Is he…" Travis swallowed.

"I think…"

Peter's face turned unerringly towards the branches they were hiding in.

That moment, their mother's words echoed in Connor's mind. _'Your father… he is a powerful man. Because of that, monsters will try to harm you. Not people, Conner, Travis. **Monsters**. They might look like people, but they can smell you, sniff you out. If they do, run.' _

Travis must have reached the same thought at the same time as Connor did. They shared a terrified glance.

 _Run._

Keeping low to the ground, they ran in a straight line in the opposite direction from Peter. They slipped into the first side alley they found, following it down. Travis grabbed the wrist of the first street kid they ran into. "Jinx. Same meeting point. Code Word: Titan," he said clearly.

The kid's eyes widened and he gave a short nod before scampering off.

Despite the situation, Conner couldn't help but grin. It really paid to have Jinx as a friend. It almost seemed like she was invincible. All the street kids and street teens respected her. She taught them how not to get caught and pulled them out of risky situations. If someone was getting beat up by a gang or some old guy with a knife, you went and got Jinx. She'd come.

She always did.

In return, all the street kids were willing to stand up for her, and that protection spread to Connor and Travis. Like how a few kids discreetly got in the way of the cashier guy yesterday, when he and Connor were running away from him. Or how they never tattled on Jinx or the Stolls when police and angry shop owners swept through the streets looking for them. They even redirected them in the wrong directions, sometimes. They were always happy to help in any way they could, no matter how little.

Like now.

It was a system Jinx had worked hard to perfect. The grubby little boy they talked to would find others, telling them that the Stolls were looking for Jinx. Those kids would tell others, and they would scour their areas of the city for Jinx. Jinx had trained them to do it in small, controlled situations as a game, giving out candy as prizes to those who found her first.

Now, it served as a way to fetch Jinx if there was an emergency or whenever anyone was in danger. Right now was both. "Titan" was a code word that hadn't been used before. Jinx had told them it was for the most dangerous emergencies only. What was a monster, if not an emergency?

They made their way to the rooftop that they claimed as theirs. On the way, Connor pulled out a long fire poker out of a crack in a wall. Travis reached behind a pile of trash that had been there for over six months for an aluminum baseball bat. It was another thing that Jinx had been insistent on—always keeping a backup. Little caches of weapons and food were now hidden around the city. One could be found every few blocks. They often had to be replaced, though, due to being found by other street kids.

Conner had never been more grateful for Jinx's paranoia.

The two climbed onto the rooftop faster than they had ever done before. Like Travis had suspected, Jinx wasn't there. Connor was glad to have Travis as a brother. He wouldn't have guessed that Jinx wouldn't be there, not until he actually climbed onto the roof. He huddled close to Travis, glancing fearfully around.

"Jinx!" Connor yelled. Travis echoed him, yelling their friend's name out into the rooftops. "Jinx, help!"

Connor twisted around, scanning the rooftops and the streets below. He half-expected to see Peter staring at them from one of the windows of the building next to them or suddenly stepping out of the shadows. Peter could probably hear them, but no one knew the city like Jinx. Connor had more than enough faith in Jinx to believe that she would find them first. Peter might be a monster, but no one was scarier than Jinx. Jinx would protect them.

It was probably odd that they thought Peter was a monster. After all, most kids stopped believing in monsters at their age. They were more worried about being popular in school and getting the last piece of pizza in the box.

Connor and Travis, though?

Their mom was insistent that monsters existed, and not just those you'd see on the news. It didn't help that strange things followed the Stoll brothers, sometimes literally.

When Connor was in kindergarten, there was a giant dog that kept attacking him. The police and animal control were called in, but it paid them no mind, blowing off the multiple tranquilizers and bullets to mindlessly attack the doors of the classroom Connor had barricaded himself in. It eventually turned around and chased some baton-wielding girl out into the streets. No one knew the girl—she didn't attend the school. Conner had been expelled because they thought he "antagonized the dog."

Just a month before that, some hunched old woman had shadowed the two brothers until their mother bundled them into a small shop. She had instructed them to hide by the perfume bottles while she stood determinedly at the door, one hand in her purse. They had stayed there for over an hour before their mom decided they were safe.

Last year, it was some really tall dude. He didn't do much, but Travis had been insistent that the guy had one eye, and not like a pirate. A literal one eye, smack above his nose. Connor didn't see how that could be true, but Travis _never_ lied to Connor. That meant that he had to be telling the truth.

Not to mention that creepy pair of Siamese twins that out-creeped Connor and Travis when they actually _tried_ to be creepy. That was… Connor didn't like remembering that day.

"Jinx!" Travis yelled one last time.

The brothers turned their eyes to each other in worry. It must have been about ten minutes since they started, yet Jinx still hadn't appeared. It never took her longer than a couple minutes, no matter how late they visited at night.

"Do you think Peter got her?" Connor asked. They had seen Jinx beat up men triple their age. Once, she even went up against three whole gangsters. But maybe… If Peter _really_ was a monster… Maybe he was stronger.

Travis stared in the direction they came from. "No," he said shaking his head. "I mean, the monsters are after _us_. Why would he hurt Jinx? He doesn't even know about Jinx."

"Maybe we should go home," Connor said. Their mom was pretty strong too. Plus, she was an adult. She'd know what to do.

Travis nodded, looking over the city. "Yeah, let's go."

The two boys turned to the ladder and jogged to it, only to whirl around as something thudded onto the roof, sending vibrations through the concrete.

Connor saw black hair, tied into two messy ponytails. It was connected to a body that was in a "superhero landing" pose.

Connor looked back at the building Jinx must have jumped off to get to that position. It was two stories higher than the rooftop they were on. Connor knew that Jinx was strong, but… could people really jump down two stories and remain unscathed?

Jinx looked at him, then the roof he was looking at. "Don't try it," she said, as if she knew what he was thinking of.

"What took you so long?" Connor asked.

"I was sleeping," Jinx said. Although she didn't say it, he could hear the 'you idiot' part follow.

"Sleeping?" Travis echoed.

Jinx gave him a long look. "What? You know I have things to do at night. When do you think I have time to sleep? Or did you just think that I don't need sleep?"

Travis flushed. "Oh. That makes sense."

"Enough. What did you wake me up for?"

"I… Uh, we…"

"There's a monster after us," Connor blurted out.

Jinx gave him a long look. "A monster. You woke me up. For a 'monster.'"

Connor nodded. "Yeah! He could smell us and…" Travis elbowed him and Connor trailed off as he realized how stupid it sounded. "I… It's real. There really is a monster after us." The rooftop was silent. Behind him, he could hear Travis scuffing the ground with his sneakers.

After a long moment, Jinx sighed. "Fine, let's say monsters are real. What do you want _me_ to do about it?"

Connor blinked and looked at Travis, who shrugged at him. Honestly, Connor hadn't thought about that. He just assumed that she could make everything better, like how she scared away all the bullies. Even David didn't do much to him anymore.

"It seems more like the kind of job we call in the air force or… superheroes… for," Jinx said. She seemed disgusted by the thought.

Connor looked back a Travis. Jinx was right. Didn't their mom say that their dad was a powerful man? Maybe he was powerful enough for the president to send soldiers to protect them. No matter how powerful Peter was, he wasn't immortal or anything. If someone shot him with a bullet, even a monster would die, right?

"You're like a superhero to us!" Travis said instead of what Connor was thinking.

It took him a moment to switch his train of thought, but Connor immediately agreed. "Yeah! You save people when other people are hurting them!" he said.

"I'm no hero," Jinx said blankly.

"Yes, you are!" Connor said.

"You're brave and heroic, and you only beat up people who deserve it," Travis said.

"Please help?" Connor said.

"Pretty please?" Travis said, as Connor started chanting "please" with a single-minded determination.

Jinx squinted at them. "Fine," she said. "Just once. One time. I'll be a hero tonight, but you don't get to ask me that again."

"Thanks, Jinx!" Connor said, bounding up to Jinx and hugging her.

She pushed them away with a glare and brushed off the sleeves of her black dress. "Hands off. This is my favorite dress."

At that, Connor and Travis shared a glance, then rushed her and hugged her as tight as they could, ignoring her protests. After they let go, she refused to speak to them, crossing her arms and turning her nose up.

Knowing that she would forgive them soon enough, the brothers merely climbed down the escape ladder and started the long path for home, feeling safe with Jinx shadowing their movements.

"Get away from them!"

Jinx's feet had not even touched the ground when the falling dusk was disturbed with a yell. The three flinched at the loud cry, spinning around, only for Jinx to be tackled by a figure much larger than her. In the darkness of the alley, it took Connor a moment to realize who it was.

"It's him!" Connor shouted taking a step back. At the same time, Travis took a step forward. Connor blinked, only then realizing that running away would mean abandoning the girl who had done so much for them. Running wasn't an option. The two boys hefted their weapons and approached the struggling pair. Jinx didn't need any help, though.

The petite girl slugged the figure in the face, standing up and kicking it solidly in the ribs as it grabbed weakly at her ankle. Another stomp promptly released her ankle. " _This_ is the guy that's been giving you so much trouble?" she asked with disdain.

Looking at Peter, it was hard to see what they were so afraid of. He was a sorry sight, whimpering on the ground and rubbing his ribs. He wasn't some storybook villain or ancient demon. Peter was just a kid, like them.

"Um, I think we were wrong," Travis said after a moment, hiding his baseball bat behind his back. "Whoops, false alarm. Not a monster." He coughed into his fist and glared at Connor, who belatedly tossed his fire poker into a convenient pile of trash bags.

"Sorry, dude," Connor said, going over to Peter and holding out his hand. "Hopefully this doesn't make class awkward."

Peter's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. "You know about the monsters," Peter said.

Connor's eyes widened and he tried to pull away. Peter shoved Connor behind him and stood in front of him protectively. "I won't let you hurt them!" he shouted at Jinx.

"Um, what? Travis asked.

It took Connor a moment to respond. "Dude, she's our friend," he said with irritation once he got through his surprise. He tried to walk around Peter, only to be stopped by Peter's outstretched arm.

"She isn't what you think she is," Peter said, eyes wide and pulling reed pipes from his backpack with his other hand. "You have to get away from her; she's a monster!"

Connor exchanged looks with his brother and their friend, doubt on his face. Jinx looked insulted, though the two brothers could see how hurt she was. Travis, for his part, looked angry on Jinx's behalf. "You don't even know her! What right do you have to call her a monster?"

"You tackled her first," Connor reminded Peter.

Peter shoo his head, nostrils flaring. "No, no, no! She'll eat you!" Peter said, shaking. "We have to go!"

"What's your problem?" Jinx asked, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

"Run!" Peter said, bringing his fists up in an almost comical fighting pose. Travis and Connor exchanged exasperated glances, having immediately spotted several weak spots that would've been easy to take advantage of. People were always led astray by Jinx's youth and petite size, but she was the best fighter on the streets. There was no way that crippley, wimpy Peter would be able to take her on.

"Are you quite done?" Jinx said with disinterest. She brought her hand to her face, inspecting her nails.

Then, Peter kicked off his feet.

...Well, not quite.

At first, Travis had thought that he was kicking off his shoes. Then, his feet came off with it. Instead of stumps, Peter had _hooves_.

"Um…" Travis said inarticulately.

"Er…" Connor added in.

Their responses had Jinx looking up again. Her eyes widened and Travis stared. He had never seen Jinx look as surprised as she did in that moment. "What the heck?" she burst out, looking irritated.

Travis inched closer, Connor following. "Dude. What doctor messed up your surgery this badly? I mean, llama feet and human feet are entirely different things."

"Where can you even get llama feet?" Connor wondered out loud.

"What? No, I was born this way," Peter said.

"Your mom was a llama?" Connor asked cautiously.

" _No_!" Peter said, looking distraught.

Travis thought for a moment. "So was it your dad that was a llama?" he questioned.

" _Satyr_ ," Peter pronounced clearly. "I am a _satyr_. My _parents_ are satyrs."

A light bulb went up in Connor's head. "You're goat-people from Greek?"

"Greece, not Greek," Travis corrected him.

"This world has magic," Jinx murmured, eyes glittering with delight.

Peter yelped and turned. Travis blinked. When did she get so close? He felt a pang of jealousy as Jinx looked over Peter in fascination. The only time Travis had seen her look like that was when he and Connor showed her how good they were at lockpicking on their second meeting. At least Peter didn't seem like he was as interested in her.

"S-stay away!" the 'satyr' said as he scrambled away, eyes wild. He swung his fist weakly, but it didn't seem like he was actually trying to hit her.

"Now why would I do that?" Jinx purred, stalking after him.

"Hey, hey," Connor said, feeling pity for his not-really friend. Jinx could be intimidating. "Jinx. He's scared. Just give him a moment."

Jinx looked at him, then turned to stare at Peter. "Fine," she said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the building. "You have thirty seconds before I get my answers. And trust me, I always get my answers."

* * *

Join me on Discord! Together, we can rebel against the Immortals and take over the server! Just copy, paste on the address bar thingy, and delete the space after the period!

discord. gg/XDyEJep


	4. Chapter 3

**It's a bit more dark than usual. Especially the blood and cutting part in Jinx's section (I do not advocate self-harm, and if you do that, you should go to a doctor or talk to a therapist. Don't hurt yourself. Dat bad)... Is this now an 'M' work? IDK, someone should tell me before I break another rule or something.**

 **I totally have a reason, though! In Discord, I was sacrified to my patron god by the high priest! Oh, and my inspiration for writing this chapter was 'cause I got an email saying that some dude (or dudette) favorited and followed yesterday (don't know if it's okay to write the name or mention the person, so I'll just say that it's only one person, so if it's you, you'll know it's you), and I was like O.o and 'huh, some people actually _like_ this?' so I figured I had to go on a writing spree.**

* * *

-Connor-

Connor knew there was something wrong the moment the door opened with a push of his hands. He could feel it. There was a tingling in the air, a prickling just under his skin. Well, it was either that or the fact that there were lights on in the living room. There were never lights on in the living room; it was rarely used, and it just wasn't worth the electricity bill. That was the first sign.

"Ah, Trav?" he said nervously, hoping it was just paranoia. The dark look Travis gave the lights told him that it wasn't his overactive imagination.

Travis stepped forward and breathed deeply. Connor gave it a cautious sniff too. The air didn't smell like anything in particular; that was the second sign. Tuesday was one of the two days their mom came home early from her delivery job. Whenever she came home early, she would cook huge quantities of different varieties of food, enough to last them for days, sometimes weeks.

She didn't cook today.

Peter whimpered. "It reeks of monsters," he said, clutching his pipes closer.

Connor saw Travis cast him a dry look. Remembering all the 'basics' that Peter told them on the way home, Travis asked, "Are you sure you're not just smelling Jinx again? She's standing right behind you."

Peter spun around and then scrambled away as Jinx glared at Travis. "I haven't visited your house since last month," she said. "There's no way it could be me."

"Actually," Peter said, relaxing, "it could be you. For some monsters, especially the more unique ones, the smell can linger."

Jinx raised her fist threateningly. "Watch who you're calling a monster," she said, a blatant warning laced through her voice.

Connor grimaced. For Peter and those like him, the definition of "monster" seemed really broad and all-encompassing. Basically, if they didn't like you, you were called a monster. If they liked you, but you look different from them, you were also called a monster. And if their parents didn't like you, you'd end up becoming a monster. Some monsters were actually just normal humans who were cursed because a god didn't like their attitude or something. Others were children of the gods… and half-siblings to the demigods, or 'Half-Bloods,' as Peter called them. If they were monsters, well, Connor didn't see why demigods couldn't be called monsters.

Peter's eyes widened. "O—of course, it goes both ways! I mean, some humans have a stench that can last half a year!"

That was… interesting. Did the amount of weekly baths have anything to do with that?

"Guys, there's something really wrong. Mom cooks on Tuesdays," Travis said, interrupting Connor's thoughts.

"Always," Connor agreed. "She never misses a day."

Jinx walked forward with confidence, pushing the two siblings aside. She went straight to the kitchen, stopping when she rounded the corner. Jinx must have seen something in that room, because she was raising her hands into one of the three signature poses she usually took before starting a fight. The rest of the group came running, the Stolls faster because of their worry for their mother, while Peter was noticeably slower.

The kitchen was a disaster. An open tin spilled olives in a dark, splattering trail of canned juice over half the counter. Boiled noodles lay in a tangled pile, forming a mini island in the middle of a puddle. The cutlery drawer was open, several of the knives missing. Most importantly, though, the kitchen table was broken, their mom's prone form sprawled over the wreckage.

The Stolls made to run to their mother, but they were stopped: Connor by Jinx, and Travis by Peter. "I'm not letting you get hurt too," Jinx said quietly in Connor's ear. Connor hesitated, then stopped fighting her, trusting Jinx. "Friends of yours, Peter?" Jinx asked cuttingly, in a much louder voice.

That was when Connor noticed the three other people in the kitchen, hovering in the shadows. Now that she had pointed them out, Connor didn't know how he could've missed them. They were beautiful, and he couldn't tear his eyes off of them. They all had long eyelashes and dark, almond eyes. Two of them looked to be in their twenties. The last one… The last one was Sasha.

"What are you doing in my house?" he demanded, looking at Sasha.

She shrugged, giving him a smile that looked almost embarrassed. "Well, I got… _hungry_ ," she said meaningfully, "so I decided to have a snack. My 'mom' and 'auntie' decided to come along. They didn't believe me when I said I found a halfblood all by myself." From the way she said 'mom' and 'auntie,' it was clear that the two women weren't really her mom and aunt.

"You did a very good job," the lady with blond hair like Sasha's said.

"Yesss, you sssurpassed my expectationsss," the brown-haired one said, running a claw-like nail through Sasha's hair. Sasha leaned in to the touch.

Connor had to look away as their creep-factor went up, only to be elbowed by Jinx. "Keep your eyes on the enemy. You don't know when they'll strike," she said, just has his eyes darted back to his mom.

He lifted his gaze up to Sasha with new resolve. "I'm gonna kill you," he swore. He looked to the two grown monsters. "All of you."

Peter inched forward, eyes on the three women. Jinx immediately shifted—to protect Peter as he went, Connor realized. Kneeling he pressed a finger on their mother's neck. "She's alive, but I think she needs an ambulance."

"You _think_?" Jinx said.

"Pity," the blonde said, sliding forward with her hips swaying, "because there'll be no one left to call them." She looked over at Connor and Travis, licking her lips. The brunnette slid to the right, moving so slowly that Connor didn't see her until he noticed Travis tensing and angling towards her.

"Careful, lady," Jinx said in a rude tone. "There's four of us and three of you. Five of us, if Mrs. Stoll wakes up."

"Mmmm," the woman pretending to be Sasha's mom said, brushing her blond hair over her shoulder. "Four of you. How will we _ever_ manage to finish this meal before it goes bad?" She started after her 'sister', Sasha following with eager eyes. Sasha looked at them as if trying to figure out which one would taste best, before finally focusing on Connor. She probably chose him because she knew him best. Trying not to show how much it disturbed him, Connor stared right back at Sasha. He did the 'I'm watching you' move he saw on TV. It didn't frighten her.

The children all braced themselves. Connor quickly began thinking of all the moves Jinx had taught them. Peter started edging back towards their group. "Hey!" Connor said, noticing this. "Protect my mom, you jerk!"

Peter eyed Travis, then set himself resignedly in front of Mrs. Stoll. "I'm not a fighter, kid. Plus, your brother needs my help," he said. Still, he wasn't running, so Connor counted it as a win.

Jinx likely didn't need help. Sasha and Connor were around the same size. All-in-all, Peter was right. Travis probably would be the one needing the most help. "Are you a goat, or _are you a goat_? Satyr up!" Connor demanded, figuring that telling Peter to 'man up' might be taken as an insult.

Travis was probably going to protest needing help, but before he could, Sasha's family attacked.

A moment later, Connor was wondering how he could have ever thought of them as beautiful. They were… pretty scary, actually. Not that Connor would admit it out loud. There were the flames for one thing. They also each had one Peter-style leg apiece, and a metal one. Not to mention their _faces._

Sasha ran straight at him, like some sort of horror movie ghoul. Travis was there in an instant, swinging a knife he had retrieved from the wall. With a startled yelp, Sasha scrambled back. "Stay away from my little brother," Travis growled with his eyes narrowed. He pointed the blade right at her, then did a fancy flip that resulted in the knife landing squarely in Connor's hands. The blade nearly cut Connor, but it made them look like secret agents from a spy movie, so it was worth it.

"He's got it handled, eyes on your own opponent!" Jinx snapped as Travis' head was almost taken off by the auntie. Peter started angrily playing a cheerful jig on his reeds in retaliation. Connor was about to yell at him to do something productive when the aloe plant by the windows suddenly decided that all it ever wanted out of life was to become a kraken. It grew at an exponential rate, lifted itself out of its pot, and then proceeded to start strangling the auntie.

Travis hastily scrambled back from the flailing brunette. Connor, for his part, stood there and openly gaped. Sasha was no better, looking like she severely regretted getting up in the morning.

A flash of pink light caught Connor's attention—what the frick was that?—and he saw the window and most of the wall around it completely break away from the building, falling to the streets below. Jinx was trading blows with the blonde 'monster,' but they were evenly matched. "Connor!" Jinx snapped, not even bothering to glance at him.

Connor started, then quickly turned back to his opponent. Just because really weird stuff was happening wasn't an excuse not to cover his own back. Luckily for him, Sasha didn't seem interested in fighting anymore. She backed away as he advanced, until she was back in the same corner she had been in when Connor had first entered the room.

Peter stepped up, playing a song that had the basil winding around Sasha's ankles like snakes on a warpath. Sasha started ripping and stamping.

Connor hesitated, then decided to join his brother in pinning down the thrashing brunette monster. He still kept an eye on Sasha, though.

Auntie-monster was being repeatedly beaten over the head by Travis and his trusty frying pan. The hits eventually doused the fire that encased her head. Unfortunately, it didn't do much harm other than that, the monster seeming more enraged at the aloe plant than anything. Beating back a flailing arm with his forearm, Connor aimed and slashed just above the inside of her elbow—triceps tendon, the Jinx-voice lectured in his head—with his knife, creating a three-inch gash that should've cut the tendon entirely and disable that arm.

It didn't work.

Instead, the wound shifted strangely, some yellowish dust pouring out before the gash itself just… disappeared. In just a few moments, it twisted and knitted together. The arm immediately started flailing again, the talons scratching at Connor's sleeve.

Part of him was in shock, but the Jinx-part of him chided him for his hesitation and insisted that he should've gone for the flexor tendons instead.

Without looking up from her, Travis held his hand up from where he was trying to pin auntie-monster's head down, and Connor plopped the knife into his brother's hand. Travis thrust it into the monster's torso once... twice... three times, then moved the blade to slit the throat.

He withdrew the blade, and the two brothers watched as the golden dust trickled out from the many wounds. The monster's struggles grew weaker, then stilled.

The two brothers slowly stood up. Connor gave Travis' face a quick glance, seeing the grim set of his mouth and the pale color of his skin. Connor gave him a nudge to remind him that they were still alive and that everything was going to be okay.

That was when the body twitched.

Connor and Travis gave identical shrieks, tripping in their haste to get away from the downed monster.

"What the frick?!" yelled Connor.

"Here," Peter called out from somewhere behind them. A moment later, a knife clattered onto the floor between the Stolls. "Celestial bronze, one of the few metals that can kill a monster!"

"And you didn't think to give it to us beforehand?" Travis asked, leaping forward to pin the monster down again.

Shaking away his urge to scream about zombies, Connor retrieved the knife and ran forward to hand it to his brother.

Just before the knife could pass hands, auntie-monster twisted like an acrobat, turning and kicking Travis in the chest. His brother flew across the room and hit the wall.

Instinctively, Connor tackled the monster, blade raised. Time slowed. His thoughts raced. He saw the monster raise her hand, fingers curled like claws. He batted it away, tilting his head to let the sharp nails pass harmlessly by his ear.

Flexor. Quadriceps muscle. Bicep. He systematically disabled—dismantled, the Jinx inside his head said gleefully—the threat. There was blood on his face—the monster must've gotten a hit in while he was lost in the thrill of the fight.

He positioned his knife above where her heart had to be—did monsters even have hearts? If they did, were they in the same place as human hearts?

Connor froze.

~Jinx~

The thrill of the fight sang through Jinx's veins in a way it hadn't done in this entire life. Nothing could match a spar with an equal. And that was exactly what this monster was—an equal.

It—she?—was flexible, moreso than even Robin was. Its fires were dazzling, but more for show than function. Or maybe it wasn't—was Jinx as fireproof in this life as she was in her first? The monster was quick, almost inhumanly so. But that little boost in speed meant nothing for a girl who had once, in a previous life, regularly sparred—and eventually began regularly defeating—the fastest boy alive. It was all in prediction, in knowing what your enemy would do before the thought even crossed their mind.

Still, in this world Jinx's powers were weak. She was no longer able to tear up a city block with a wave of her hand, only able to affect what was already there. Her body—her weak, child body—seemed to be much weaker in comparison to her beautiful, grey-skinned metahuman one.

Losing interest in her fight as she saw Travis fly across the room, Jinx feinted and kicked her own opponent out of the new hole in the wall. With her hex magic augmenting her push, she just barely managed to shove the Stoll's refrigerator out after it. There was a sickening sound of something heavy landing on something fleshy, of breaking bones.

Jinx made it to Connor just as the monster he hovered above took advantage of his hesitation to wrestle the knife from his grip. Jinx grabbed onto the knife herself, using her full body weight and gravity to force the knife down into the monster's chest anyways, perfectly between two ribs. It burst into a cloud of yellow dust that looked awful on her dress.

Connor looked at her blankly.

"Grab the car keys and get your brother out of here," Jinx ordered, taking command. She turned to Peter, who was just finishing tying the last monster up. "I've got this. Help him carry Travis. And don't you dare drive off without me."

Peter brightened up, like that idea hadn't occurred to him. He quickly ran to assist the Stolls.

That taken care of, Jinx slowly made her way to the last remaining monster, flipping the bronze knife in a complicated way that looked menacing. She kneeled smoothly before the young monster, cutting the vines that covered its mouth.

"I don't want to die!" the little thing cried out immediately. "I was just hungry!"

"And that's an excuse for trying to eat _my_ friends?" Jinx snarled back, letting the knife dance under its chin.

It took no notice, stamping its foot as much as it was able, still tied up and prone on the ground. "Do you know how it feels to be _hungry_? To see something you want, something you need, right in front of you, but _never allowed to have it_? I need it!" It gazed wildly at the hall where the Stolls had disappeared, fangs bared and madness in its eyes.

Jinx calculated her choices, weighing the potential danger of the baby monster with the potential strength it would have as a fully-grown ally. She then flicked a mostly-unsquashed olive right in its face. It landed in the monster's mouth, making Jinx look more skilled than she really was. Jinx raised a finger at the monster.

" _Eat_ it and _like_ it. You're not the only one that has to control your inner self for the masses." Jinx slashed widely, letting most of the basil fall harmlessly to the floor. When the monster made to move, Jinx pressed closer, using her slightly larger body mass to force it back to the ground. "But touch what is mine, and you'll live in terror for the rest of your existence, wondering if I'm just around the corner, waiting… watching..."

The monster stilled, eyes meeting hers. Jinx raised a hand over its face. It flinched away, closing its eyes in anticipation of pain to come. Almost pitiful. Almost.

The bronze blade slipped into her flesh, parting it easily. This body was so delicate in comparison to the one from Jinx's first life. It bled more, too. The drops of blood landed close to the monster's mouth. Its eyes flew open in surprise. Almost unconsciously, its tongue slid out and licked up the blood.

Jinx didn't let her disgust show on her face. Instead, she distracted herself on the logistics of having a small army of monsters. Could they simply feed on normal foods, with only a bit of blood to the side? Would they be satisfied with blood? Her blood? How many could she realistically keep? Three? Four?

She leaned in, lowering her voice into a persuasive, conversational drone. "But… keep out of trouble and find me. We'll work out a worthwhile middle ground that keeps you alive," she looked pointedly at the hole in the wall, then flicked her eyes to the yellow dust on the floor, "and makes everyone happy. You'll never feel hungry again. Now tell me… what is your name?"

-Connor-

Connor gave a discreet glance at the building as they ran out, forgetting that their apartment was on the other side of the building. The giant hole couldn't be seen from where they were.

He pulled Travis's unresisting form along as he directed Peter across the parking lot, to their beat-up grey car. "You said you were sixteen, right?" Connor asked, shoving keys into Peter's hands. "Drive!"

"What? No! It doesn't work like that. I still look like I'm a kid! The cops'll—" Peter said.

"Which is worse, getting arrested or frickin' being _eaten_?" Connor yelled as Travis let out a strangled noise. His brother turned and threw up on the asphalt.

"I tried to kill her," Travis muttered, eyes wide and staring at nothing. "I stabbed her in the heart and cut her neck open," he said, voice rising in pitch and volume.

Connor immediately turned to his brother, hugging him. "You did it to save me," he said. "It was self defense."

"Self-defense," Travis echoed.

"I don't _know_ how to drive. That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Peter yelled back at Connor, completely ignoring Travis.

"Yeah, bro. And you gotta snap outta this. You gotta keep protecting me," Connor said.

Travis swallowed and nodded. "Okay."

The keys were snatched out of Peter's hands. "We don't have time for this. Get in. _I'm_ driving," Jinx said, climbing in. She tried to reach the pedals, but even Connor could see that she was too short. Frowning, she adjusted the seats and felt for the gear shift.

Travis and Connor exchanged glances, then bolted for the passenger door. Travis got to it first, but as he opened it, Connor pushed him aside and hopped in, strapping on the seat belt before Travis could pull him out. He sent Travis a smug look.

"Is this really the time for it?" Peter asked in a frustrated tone.

"There's always time to sit shotgun," Connor said as Travis stomped to sit next to Peter in the back.

Peter opened his mouth to reply, then froze. His nostrils flared. "Go, now!"

Connor spun around to see the blond monster limp out from around the corner of the apartment building. She looked terrible, but Connor already knew that looks were deceiving. Those things were crazy-strong and could heal as fast as a Jedi or something. As if sensing the children staring at her, she lifted her head and looked straight at them. She began sprinting at them.

"Jinx!" Travis yelled.

It was just before blondie reached them that the engine roared to life and the car lurched out of its parking spot, nearly taking out a convertible that was driving past. The other car gave an annoyed honk, but Jinx raised her middle finger at him calmly. The other driver began to yell but froze, gaping, when he caught sight of Jinx. Connor understood. It was a very common reaction to Jinx, and it wasn't every day you saw a little kid driving, after all.

Jinx hit the brakes suddenly, throwing them all forward. Peter, who hadn't put on his seat belt, slammed into Jinx's seat. Ignoring him, Jinx changed gears and raced the car backwards. She didn't stop when she hit the blondie; she crashed the car into the apartment's brick wall, the monster pinned between them.

Blondie-monster wailed out something about "just a bite" and grasped at the car weakly as Jinx turned around to check her work. Jinx pulled the car away and, just when Connor thought they were going to drive off, reversed the car and hit the blondie again, this time at an angle that put Jinx much closer to the monster.

Ignoring Peter and Connor's screams, Jinx rolled down the window and looked the weakly hissing monster calmly in the eyes. Slowly, she reached out and ripped the monster's sleeve off. Then, Peter's bronze knife was sticking out of the monster's left eye. It burst into golden dust.

The whole time, Connor had simply been sitting in his seat, stunned. He watched as Jinx stared at the knife with a frown, then proceeded to use the scrap of cloth she tore from the monster's dress to wipe the already-clean blade. Jinx had probably ripped off the sleeve in anticipation of cleaning a bloodied blade, and wiping a clean blade just wasn't as cool. The car was quiet as Jinx nodded to herself and tossed the cloth out the window.

Only then did she reverse the car and drive off.

Connor turned around to look at what had been his home for the last five years. Ignoring the monster-splat on the wall, it looked the same as it always did, but Connor knew that something had irreversibly changed. Nothing would ever be the same again.

* * *

 **Welp, that's all I have. Join Discord, bros (and I don't mean that in a sexist way. Girls can be my bros, too. It's just that 'sis' doesn't count as cool). Link in the last chapter, I think.**


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